When interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was discovered by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile on July 1, 2025, it quickly attracted attention for more than just being the third known object from outside the Solar System. Some researchers, including Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, argued that several unusual features were intriguing enough to keep the possibility of…
At the bottom of a lake in Mexico City lives a creature that should not, by biological rules, be able to do what it does. Cut off one of its legs, and a new one grows back. Damage its spinal cord, heart, or even part of its brain, and the tissue regenerates with no scarring…
A casual lunch between friends in the late 1970s left behind one of physics’ quirkiest unsolved puzzles. Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, while dining with his friend Ralph Leighton at a Thai restaurant in Glendale, California, watched Leighton agonise over whether to order his favourite ginger chicken again or risk trying something new from the menu….
A growing population and finite phosphorus reserves have made efficient nutrient management one of the biggest challenges facing modern agriculture. Scientists have now uncovered new details about a little-known form of phosphorus hidden within living soil microbes. The findings, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, come from an international team of researchers…
Wilhelm Wundt (Image: Wikipedia) Most people use words like trust, honour, fairness, and respect without thinking too much about what they actually look like in physical form. In daily life, these ideas guide decisions constantly. People stay in jobs because they feel respected. They continue friendships because they trust someone’s intentions. They leave situations when…
Nearly 370,000 bottles of the popular antidepressant Duloxetine have been recalled as they contain high levels of cancer-causing compounds. This prescription medicine is used to treat depression, anxiety, and nerve damage. In an alert, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that the medication may contain a carcinogen above the recommended interim limit. The…
People often use the words meteor and meteorite interchangeably, usually when describing a bright streak of light crossing the night sky. The distinction is simple, though the objects involved are often the same piece of cosmic debris at different stages of its journey. Every day, Earth encounters material left behind by comets, broken asteroids and…
Plastic has a habit of staying around long after its useful life has ended. Some materials can be collected and recycled with relative ease, while others prove far more stubborn. Polyvinyl chloride, commonly known as PVC, sits firmly in the latter category. Used in products ranging from pipes and electrical cables to flooring and medical…
In the dry storytelling of palaeontology, certain discoveries tend to arrive with a kind of quiet disruption. Not the sort that rewrites textbooks overnight, but one that shifts the edges of what was assumed about a landscape long gone. In Ethiopia’s Afar region, a set of fragmented crocodile fossils has done something like that. The…
For centuries, one of the most extraordinary living giants in Asia stood unnoticed among the remote mountains of Taiwan. Hidden within rugged forests and protected by difficult terrain, the colossal tree escaped scientific documentation despite its immense size. Now, after years of painstaking exploration, researchers have finally located and measured what is recognised as the…
